I have changed my mind about extenders

UPDATED 19th Dec, 2021.You can add the Netgear Nighthawk AC2200 X6 to the list of approved devices.

In days gone by, I would have rather eaten my own hair than get a WIFI extender.

This, I am happy to report, has now changed… my hair is safe and a whole new world of expanded and reliable wifi networks has been opened up to me.

In the past my mantra was always the same… install an Airport Extreme and if you need to expand your network, fill your house with Airport Expresses and you’ll have a single network that services every room in the house.

But that all ended in 2015 when Apple decided that we didn’t need reliable, easy to configure wifi devices (or a central backup for that matter) and discontinued the Airport range. So not only were we at the mercy of lesser, preppy and fragile network back-ups ( I am looking at you WD MyCloud) but also our options for extended networks were things like Dlink and Netgear expanders.

Now, so far as I am concerned Dlink aren’t worth even unpacking from the box and even my beloved Netgear extender was unpredictable in its reliability and still offered up the loathsome Homenetworkname_EXT choice that is deeply unsatisfying and untidy.

Dark days indeed.

So why do networks need to be extended in the first place?

Home wifi is just a signal coming from your modem and its strength greatly depends on the quality of the modem (so in the case of the modems offered up by your ISP a few years back it is a miracle that they worked at all)

On top of this, the signal can be blocked by metal in the walls or roof and thick concrete walls.

Previously the answer to extender nightmare was a NightHawk Router, something I once described as a modem that looks like a crab exploding in slow motion. They had (have) a signal that punches through just about anything and in doing so managed to service most houses very well.

This is still something I recommend today but, alas, even they have their limits. So enter the NightHawk extender or, to address it formally, the Netgear AC2200 NightHawk X4S Plug Range Extender.

This thing is so easy to install I predict this article is going to end very quickly.

Essentially you find a powerpoint roughly where the signal drops away.

Then, download the Netgear App from the Appstore (this isn’t mandatory but does make the whole thing much easier) and then plug the extender into the power point.

Then, fire up the App you just downloaded and it will set about finding the Extender.

It will ask you if you want the Extender to leach off your current wifi network, you say “yes” and bam!, it’s working.

It was so easy it makes me wonder why it hasn’t always been this way. All these years we could have been enjoying expanded networks in our garages and patios without needing a PHD in computers to set it up and keep it alive.

The Netgear AC2200 NightHawk X4S Plug Range Extender can be found at Officeworks and most other computer dealers.